The fall of Troy in early Greek poetry and art
By: Michael J. Anderson.
Series: Oxford classical monographs
Publisher: Clarendon Press; Oxford University Press
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Oxford; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 283
Subjects: Greek literature -- History and criticism.; Literature and history -- Greece -- History.; Epic poetry, Greek -- History and criticism.; Greek drama -- History and criticism.; Trojan War -- Literature and the war.; Trojan War -- Art and the war.; Art, Greek -- Themes, motives.; Vase-painting, Greek -- Themes, motives.; Trojans in literature.; Troy (Extinct city) -- In literature.; Troy (Extinct city) -- In art.
Description: Greek myth-makers crafted the downfall of Troy and its rulers into an archetypal illustration of ruthless conquest, deceit, crime and punishment, and the variability of human fortunes. This book examines the major episodes in this archetypal myth - the murder of Priam, the rape of Kassandra, the reunion of Helen and Menelaos, and the escape of Aineias - as witnessed in Archaic Greek epic, fifth-century Athenian drama, and Athenian black- and red-figure vase-painting.

It focuses in particular on the narrative artistry with which poets and painters balanced these episodes with one another and intertwined them with other chapters in the story of Troy. The author offers the first comprehensive demonstration of the narrative centrality of the Ilioupersis myth within the corpus of Trojan epic poetry, and the first systematic study of pictorial juxtapositions of Ilioupersis scenes on painted vases.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [267]-273) and index.